In Tapes, Nixon Rails About Jews and Blacks

NYTimes

 Richard M. Nixon made disparaging remarks about Jews, blacks, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans in a series of extended conversations with top aides and his personal secretary, recorded in the Oval Office 16 months before he resigned as president.

The remarks were contained in 265 hours of recordings, captured by the secret taping system Nixon had installed in the White House and released this week by the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. [...]

Madoff’s Elder Son Found Dead in Suicide

NYTimes

Mark Madoff, the older of Bernard L. Madoff's two sons, hanged himself in his Manhattan apartment on Saturday, the second anniversary of his father's arrest for running a gigantic Ponzi scheme that shattered thousands of lives around the world.

"Mark Madoff took his own life today," Martin Flumenbaum, Mark Madoff's lawyer, said in a statement. "This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy." He called the dead man "an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo." [...]

Debate Starts on Crown Heights Rabbis’ Gag Order

NYTimes

A debate on free speech is rippling through the Lubavitcher Hasidic community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Last week, the rabbinical court known as the Beth Din of Crown Heights ordered members of the Lubavitcher community not to speak to the police or the news media on a range of issues related to crime.

The one-page edict (see below) bars members of the community of 20,000 from giving the news media information about another community member that could lead to "an investigation or intensified prosecution by any law enforcement agency." [...]

Madoff Trustee Seeks $19.6 Billion From Austrian Banker

NYTimes

The trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud has sued Sonja Kohn, an Austrian banker, seeking $19.6 billion in damages and accusing her of masterminding a 23-year conspiracy that played a central role in financing the gigantic Ponzi scheme.

Amid an avalanche of lawsuits filed in recent weeks as the trustee nears a Saturday deadline to file claims, the complaint against Ms. Kohn stands out for its stark allegations of criminal behavior and the size of the financial recovery sought.

“In Sonja Kohn, Madoff found a criminal soul mate, whose greed and dishonest inventiveness equaled his own,” the trustee, Irving L. Picard, said.[...]

Oy Vey! Belief in Santa used to bolster Jewish self-esteem

Jewish Week

My 3-year-old nephew, his voice raspy from a recent cold, has been directing a long-winded narrative my way. I catch only a few words, but they startle me: Santa will be sliding down chimneys, and then there will be presents.

“Oh really?” I say, my eyebrows rising, inwardly vowing to speak with my sister.

Although my sister and I did not grow up in a strictly observant Jewish home, Christmas remained a world apart. When the revelers caroled in our Queens neighborhood, I listened from a safe distance, peering behind porch curtains. When holiday lights twinkled through the windows next door, I stared, enraptured, envious. If I reaped some small compensation from my Jewish identity at Christmas time, it was the satisfaction of sharing in the adult secret. Santa Claus was a fake.[...]

Baruch Hashem! Stormy weekend ahead as winter finally arrives in Israel

Haaretz

Snow expected on Mount Hermon and Golan heights, heavy rains throughout Israel, accompanied by very strong winds and possible floods. [...]

Millions of illegal immigrants drive without license or insurance

NYTimes

It was just another suburban fender-bender. A car zoomed into an intersection and braked too late to stop at a red light. The Georgia woman driving it, an American citizen, left with a wrecked auto, a sore neck and a traffic fine.

But for Felipa Leonor Valencia, the Mexican woman who was driving the Jeep that was hit that day in March, the damage went far beyond a battered bumper. The crash led Ms. Valencia, an illegal immigrant who did not have a valid driver’s license, to 12 days in detention and the start of deportation proceedings — after 17 years of living in Georgia.

Like Ms. Valencia, an estimated 4.5 million illegal immigrants nationwide are driving regularly, most without licenses, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Only three states — New Mexico, Utah and Washington — currently issue licenses without proof of legal residence in the United States. [...]